Music II for Wind Quintet

Commissioned for Ensemble à la Carte in Washington DC, Music II for Wind Quintet was originally conceived as Music for Piano Solo II, written in 1990. While the 15-minute piece is through-composed, that is, without a formal compositional structure, there are natural breaks or pauses that delineate. One of these quasi-sections is reminiscent of a "hoedown". Thematic material is repeated through the entire piece.

This lively and spirited piano piece was chosen as suitable for a wind quintet because it was less idiomatic for the piano. By contrast, Music for Piano Solo IV (Crystalline Textures) above would be a more difficult piece to arrange for instruments. This piece explores the various colors available on the piano, which would make it much harder to orchestrate. Music II has more of the structural elements of music -- melody, harmony and rhythm than Crystalline Textures, which is more about dynamics and color. While five instruments have more varied color than just the piano, the pianistic ways of changing color would require much more reworking to achieve the similar effects with a quintet.